


With Your Guidance

by Aphelyon



Category: Star Trek, Star Trek: Discovery
Genre: Conversations, Dom! Paul, Fade to Black, First Time, Gentleness, Kink Exploration, Light BDSM, M/M, No Sex, Post S2, Really honestly the whole thing is just a discussion and nothing explicit in the slightest, Relationship Discussions, Romance, Sub!Hugh
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-25
Updated: 2020-03-25
Packaged: 2021-03-01 03:01:55
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,161
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23308015
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Aphelyon/pseuds/Aphelyon
Summary: Each Friday night Hugh and Paul dedicate their evening to each other. Dinner, drinks, discussions and quiet time simply spent in each others arms. Tonight their quiet conversation takes a turn Hugh didn't quite expect, learning something about Paul that draws out an unexplored avenue of desire within him.---Post S2. Not smut.
Relationships: Hugh Culber/Paul Stamets
Comments: 4
Kudos: 22





	With Your Guidance

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Cygfa](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cygfa/gifts).



> Dedicated to the lovely @Cygfa who has been a tremendous and kind friend, also who sparked this whole thing in our discussion of sub!Hugh in the vein of "the first time they do some D/s stuff" and " the first time Hugh asks for it within their relationship" 
> 
> My thoughts being why this is a new discovery for Hugh is that he's never had an opportunity to explore it. Hugh's scene was more hook-up culture and cruising than BDSM, which is more intensely focused, which is why I think why Paul would have fallen into that instead.
> 
> Not-Beta'd

  
  
  
  
  
  


Each Friday night Hugh and Paul make a concerted effort to sit down in their lounge room, eat something a little more special for the evening and have a glass of their desired poisons. Hugh and his red wine that is far too dry for Paul's taste, and Paul with his tequila. As concerted as the effort is, it does not come forced. Every Friday evening comes with ease and is a comfortable, quiet way to wrap up their weeks.

They sit close, the holo emitters sometimes filling the room with an abundance of candles, a piano playing a soft sonnet in the background and the lights dim enough that the false light of the candles flicker across their skin. Sometimes the evening ends with clothes strewn all across the floor, others it ends with Hugh resting against Paul's chest and simply laying in his arms as they drift off on their couch after their conversation begins to slur then sleepy mumbles and affirmations are replaced with soft snores.

  
Tonight, they have been recalling places in the now even more impossibly distant past that they used to visit. There's a fondness to their recollections, and a gentle mourning for places that have been lost to the march of time. 

Not-yet entwined together, Hugh rests his head on Paul's shoulder with his legs comfortably pulled up onto the couch, covered by a deep grey blanket large enough to be draped lazily around the two of them.

He sighs. "I had always wanted to go to the Palais Garnier, but I never got the chance."

"You would have loved it, it was magnificent."

  
  


"You've been?" Hugh asks, surprised.

  
  


"Mmh," Paul hums, and then is silent for a few seconds, the way he does when lost in a memory. "In my twenties, I took someone I was with, as a treat for them."

"A girlfriend?" He asks, shifting enough to look up at Paul. He knows Paul is gay, but doesn't mean he hadn't dated before he settled into his sexuality. However the way that he phrases _'someone he was with'_ is oddly unspecific, and that's very unlike Paul.

"No, no, " Paul waves that away. "I've never dated a woman, well, there was Judy in first grade, but I couldn't even tie my shoelaces yet little alone realise what a ' _girlfriend_ ' meant. I thought she was a girl who wanted to be my friend."

Hugh laughs at that image, of the sweet and naive child Paul. "So he was... _a lover_ _?"_ Hugh teases lightly, emphasising the old fashioned term.

"No, he was..." Paul smiles and ducks his head, again oddly uncharacteristic of him. "I was his..." He trails off and Hugh cocks his head, watching Paul curiously now. There's no pressure in his gaze, no judgement, only curiosity.

Paul seems to discern that when he finally looks back up at Hugh, having spent a few moments lost in his memories. He draws in his breath, and in his matter of fact blunt tone, he says something that Hugh never could have anticipated.

"He was my submissive."

Hugh blinks a few times, ten times, maybe more. Not that it bothers him, it is only due to the fact that it is so unexpected. It takes him a few moments to find the words, a million thoughts blooming in his mind, too fast to grasp onto any of them. "You're a..." He trails off, he doesn't even know the terms.

"A D-type, yes." Paul offers, and smiles a little mischievously. "Is it really that surprising?"

Hugh blushes, he can't help that reaction, nor can he help his smile. "No, I guess it isn't."

Paul predominately tops, after all and he loves maintaining a sense of control in all things. He loves to protect and comfort Hugh, oh how Hugh knows that Paul loves eliciting those small intimate reactions out of Hugh and he loves - ...well, if he is to comb his memories of all their time together, the puzzle pieces surely fit.

Paul's hand has now come to rest on top of his and his thumb rubbing slow circles over the back of Hugh's hand, the motion making Hugh realise that several moments have passed. He's biting onto his lip, and realises his gaze must have looked far away to Paul, who sits and watches him patiently. Under the strength of Paul's warm hands, Hugh is reminded how safe he is, and those deep, sharp blue eyes let him feel he can ask whatever he wants. He knows that he can anyway, but this now - oddly - almost feels a little different.

"Do you still remember...well, do you still know how to do that stuff?"

The simple question obviously catches Paul a little off guard. He laughs, but it is not unkind.

"It's not really something that ever goes away. It's always tied to who you are, unless you want it to go away I suppose. But in all honesty I love that part of myself, I love what I get out of doing it and -" Paul pauses for a moment, considering. He reaches out with his spare hand brushing his finger over Hugh's cheek, following the contours of his face. Hugh's eyes flutter closed, sighing into Paul's touch. "... and I love what I can do with it."

It's strange to Hugh how this little bit of information has shifted a perspective within him. The way that he leans so automatically towards Paul, is it an offering, an admission? He isn't sure. Hugh simply knows that this allure is different to that of which he has felt up until this point with Paul, even if in many ways it is the same. He isn't sure what all this could entail, not really, but he knows that he trusts Paul implicitly and wants to experience this new facet of him more fully. He wants to give himself to Paul and for Paul to have him. He wants to experience what Paul can make of him under his hands and his command.

  
Paul's fingers are still gently stroking the side of his face when Hugh opens his eyes.

"There's a question in your eyes." Paul says, Hugh can't help but hear the undertone of a gentle command _. 'Tell me what's on your mind.'_

"Could you show me? Show me what you mean by that?" His words escape him as a shy whisper, feeling suddenly small and vulnerable in the most tender of ways. He wants to give Paul this, to feel this brazen focus on him - from him - and oh, he wants what Paul wants to both take from him, and give to him in return.

The change in Paul's eyes as he smiles is infinitesimal but undeniable. He brushes his fingers fully down the side of his face to lift Hugh's chin in order to look at him with that smouldering intensity.

"I'd love nothing more, _my_ dear doctor."

Paul claims his offering with a kiss.

//

End

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading! As always I really love your thoughts and feedback, it's tremendously appreciated.
> 
> You can also come find me over at [tumblr](https://aphelyons.tumblr.com/) or more actively on [twitter](https://twitter.com/Aphelyons) \- I post drawings of Culmets stuff I do there too.


End file.
